Figure 1
New challenges and
the learning curve
It seems a truism that people need
new challenges. Like any hobby, skill or profession, there is a learning curve
which we all follow when learning to fly gliders. This is basically a curve
of progress against time, and shows how progress gets harder the more advanced
you become. We feel that people tend to leave after the barriers to improvement
become too great for them. Also, many pilots seem to become bored or frustrated
with soaring after the initial flush of solo achievement is over and they've
figured out how to stay up all day around the airport.
The logical next step for most
is to begin cross country flying. Making the transition from local to cross
country flying is a non-trivial exercise and this is just where our soaring
infrastructure seems weakest. If we follow the soaring learning curve in
fig 3, we can see that the training infrastructure peters out somewhere around
initial cross country point, just when the learning starts to get pretty
difficult.
Here, as in other sports, those
lucky enough to have a mentor or training program seem to stay involved
and interested. Those who don't, left to their own devices, either give
up in frustration or boredom, or learn most of their lessons the hard way,
sometimes the dangerous way. There are plenty of books, plenty of advice
and plenty of tall stories about cross country flying, but there is little
in the way of a standardized mentoring program in place to encourage pilots
into regular disciplined cross country flying. What does exist is generally
promoted locally by clubs or regional organizations, however there is not
much consistency between programs nationally. We have good ab-initio training,
good contests, and not much in between. The FAI badge program is supposed
to handle this, but while it is a good program and provides many of the
standards by which we measure ourselves, it does not provide a process or
infrastructure for improvement.
Figure 2
If an enjoyable, self sustaining
support environment could be figured out for neophyte cross country pilots,
it might make some real difference to member enthusiasm and enjoyment, and
help prevent the negative spiral of reduced membership and participation
in soaring. Not only would this help keep existing pilots in the sport, but
would provide a visible continuation of organized club activities beyond
solo and local soaring. The majority of new soaring pilots seem to aspire
to cross country flying and so it is generally important for a new prospective
member to know that there is more to gliding than staying round the airport,
and a forward looking training infrastructure leaves a very positive impression
of the professionalism and attitude of a club to any prospective member.
Regional Organizations
There are other organizations affiliated
or otherwise with the SSA, that can play a critical role in improving the
health of the soaring movement. These are the regional organizations, usually
formed with the charter of promoting soaring within a broader region than
individual clubs are capable of serving. However, these regional organizations
typically cover large geographical areas that make a close knit regional
soaring community difficult to achieve. Out here on the West coast, in Northern
California, we have a regional organization called PASCO (PAcific Soaring
Council) whose charter is to promote soaring in the Northern California and
Nevada area. PASCO has sponsored numerous regional and National contests in
the area at sites like Montague, Minden , AirSailing (North of Reno) and Crazy
Creek. The PASCO area contains several clubs who hold group membership of
PASCO, as well as many private owners not affiliated with clubs who use the
local commercial sites in the area. PASCO has a long history of running wave
camps and cross-country camps in the Sierras and Nevada, and has provided
a priceless service to soaring pilots by developing and maintaining these
programs. However finding a structured format for bringing on new cross country
pilots is very rare beyond cross country training camps that occur for a week
or 2 in the spring. These camps are excellent and essential, but do not provide
a season long environment for building confidence and making repeated cross
country flights after the few tentative steps made during a cross country
camp.
Figure 3
The Inter club league
idea
A format that goes a long way to addressing
the inter-related issues of infrastructure, learning process, support environment
and member satisfaction is the inter club league. It is a team oriented weekend
contest series bringing pilots of various levels of cross country expertise
together to fly in a semi-competitive environment. It is intended to provide
a supportive program for bringing pilots into cross country flying and also
for developing the skills of pilots of all levels. It does this by having
the competitive format of a set daily course with start and finish gate.
What this means is that now every participant has a way of measuring his/her
performance on a given day, and a way of comparing notes and learning from
pilots who flew the same course in a different way. This dramatically increases
a pilots rate of learning and this is reinforced by a strong social element
in the league. People from different clubs in a region now have a regular
opportunity to fly together at different sites around the region, and the
communication and support role of the regional organization is increased.
Club teams consist of 3 pilots each in a separate class; Novice, intermediate
and Pundit (pundit means self appointed expert! ) The pundit is in general
the experienced 'mentor' pilot in the team, and there are maximum qualifications
for each class except the pundit class, since everyone knows that anyone
can be a self appointed expert! In the UK the program has a history of attracting
high caliber mentors; for example, the 1993 Standard Class World Champion,
Andrew Davis, has frequently flown in the inter club league with novice
and intermediates in his clubs team with the specific purpose of encouraging
neophyte pilots. A program that brings promising up and coming pilots in
contact with pilots of this caliber makes the league a training ground for
champions. Wouldn't you be inspired if you could fly with and learn from
a world champion or international team member ?
The different classes fly different
courses and are scored on the 1000 pt system with sports class handicapping.
Tasks are assigned speed tasks with pundit, intermediate and novice tasks
being as collinear as possible to maximize the opportunity for team flying
between classes on a given club team. The competitors in each class are
assigned League points at the end of each meet according to their placing
in class, and league points are summed over the season for each club to
determine the winning team for the season. League points are also multiplied
by a handicapping factor to make the novice performances significantly more
important to the overall team score than the pundit classes, again to encourage
mentoring.
The social side of the league
is strongly emphasized, to the degree that the requirement for the host
club to organize a party on the Saturday night of the meet is written into
the rules! In our west coast adaptation of the league idea we added extra
incentive by indicating that there would be a prize for the best party (by
popular vote) at the end of each season. Participating pilots pay all their
own costs, film & developing, party etc. and this generally came to
less than $20 on top of tows for the whole weekend.
In the UK, this is a national
league, with regional sub-leagues which are used to select team entries
into a national inter-club league final weekend at the end of the season.
Because of the differences in geographic scale between the US and the UK,
it occurred to us that instead of a national league, we could instigate
a similar program involving as many of the clubs in the PASCO catchment
area as possible; we had 5 or 6 potential clubs, who if they each fielded
a team of three, would give a very healthy entry of 18 ships per meet! We
worked out rules, and made a proposal to the PASCO board one evening to enlist
their endorsement. The idea was well received, and we were able to publicize
and promote the new program through the PASCO newsletter, WestWind.
Spirit of the league
concept
The league idea is designed to combine
good-natured rivalry with mutual support and a healthy social scene with
a way for pilots to progress and actually measure their progress. It provides
an opportunity for people to learn the delicate art of task setting, CD,
film development, running a gate, and how to get up to 20 gliders launched
safely and quickly, above and beyond the cross country skill development.
It also provides an opportunity for various sites to show off their facilities
and operation. Safety is the absolute priority, with fun and learning a close
second. The social side is particularly beneficial. In the PASCO area most
people have to drive between 1 and 2 hrs. to get to their nearest soaring
site. The distances and time involved in going to other club sites to fly
are usually prohibitive, so a formalized scheme where clubs take it in turn
to host one weekend meet for the league each season really helps cement the
social fabric of a regional organization. In our first year with the PASCO
league, five weekend meets were hosted by sites at Chico, Montague, Truckee,
AirSailing and Crazy Creek and many new friends were made.
Reasons behind competition
format
The competitive format is a turn-off
to some people, but we have found after one years experience, that this
was largely because people perceived not winning as failure. We have gone
to great lengths to discourage this kind of attitude; the main focus is to
view ones progress as relative to where you were at the start of the season
rather than focusing on how many people beat you at each meet. This is why
the league is split into classes, so that similarly experienced pilots can
fly with and against one another without having to 'compete' against pilots
with much greater experience. The focus is on testing ones ability and measuring
ones progress without stepping outside the bounds of good judgment and safety.
By encouraging pilots to fly at a variety of sites in different weather conditions
the league encourages novice pilots to expand their experience beyond the
home site. Given the enormous range of conditions available in our region,
from flatlands to high mountain, from flooded paddy fields to arid desert,
at any given event participants are exposed to conditions very different
to those at the home site. On several of the PASCO league weekends, pilots
made enterprising flights on days their gliders may otherwise have never
been put together.
Setting things up
When we first began publicizing this
idea, we met with a wide range of reactions. Some were uninterested, some
were openly cynical, but the majority were excited by the prospect of new
places new challenges and new friends. With support from the PASCO board,
we began an intensive program of communicating and promoting the idea throughout
the whole PASCO region. There is no doubt about one thing, and that is that
getting people together at all would have been very much more difficult
without a regular, high quality regional newsletter (the PASCO newsletter
WestWind) as a medium for publishing articles, rules and event dates in
a timely manner. Without this our ability to contact and enlist the help
of other like-minded individuals would have been virtually impossible. This
included recruiting clubs, team captains and commercial soaring sites to
support the idea, and following up with guidelines for course setting, rules,
levels of help needed on the ground, and even information about the various
sites and how to get there, where to stay etc. Items that were critical
in the startup year were follow- up with each team captain shortly before
each met to confirm team participation, and fully briefing each host site
regarding expectations, pilot safety briefings, airport checkouts, rope break
options etc.
In the first year of running
a proposed league, there are several issues to address. Firstly, it's new
to everyone, so good organization is essential. Nothing creates enthusiasm
like an excellent first impression. Secondly, you need to start out modestly
and let the idea grow to provide an environment for encouraging novices
to cross country soaring. Thirdly you need to ensure that each event is
so much fun that people will really want to come back and do it again next
year!
Team captains and the pundit
team members play critical roles. For these individuals, the spirit should
be one of mentorship; they need to be motivated by a desire to nurture and
encourage their team members cross country performance, as well as their
own.
For the inter club league to
succeed, you need to have a pool of motivated individuals who are willing
to take on the role of team captain and/or pundit, and be mentors to less
experienced pilots in their team. In this way team performance is improved
and the pool of potential team captains and pundits increased. There is
no shortage of individuals who could fulfill this role. Not all will have
the desire or the ability to provide good coaching skills, but we would
encourage anyone qualified and interested to give it a go. We think this
is the way to provide a fun, sociable, safe, low pressure way of building
up the movement.
Teams, team names
Teams in general had humorous names,
in the light-hearted spirit of the league; We had the 'Diablo Demons', the
'Silverado Slugs', the 'Byron Bunnies' amongst the six teams that decided
to participate. This is supposed to be tongue-in-cheek; the spirit of the
league is safety first, fun and learning second, and egotism definitely
taboo. Obviously there are minimum experience and ability requirements needed
before a new pilot can participate in a program like this; we settled on
recommending sensible minimums above and beyond minimum legal requirements,
and let the individual pilots and team captains/instructors decide if they
were ready or not.
Rules
- Each team shall field a team
of three Pilots Comprising one Novice. one Intermediate and one Pundit.
The team shall nominate a team captain who need not be a pilot.
- The pilot classes are defined
as follows:
- Novice - Any pilot who
by 1st April of the year:
-
- has
not flown in a rated competition, OR
- has
not flown a 300k qualifying for Gold Distance
- Intermediate - Any pilot
who by 1st April of the League year:
-
- has
not flown in a Nationals level competition. OR
- has
not flown a 500k qualifying for Diamond distance.
- Pundit - Anyone can be
an pundit.
- If desired a pilot may fly in
a higher class, e.g. a pilot qualifying for Intermediate status may be entered
as his team' s Pundit .
- Pilots may fly any class glider.
The CH Sports class handicap system will be used to equalize sailplanes.
No water ballast is allowed.
- Task setting will be done by
the host team's Contest Director assisted by the Team Captain. It is recommended
that the Intermediate and Pundit classes should be set the same task where
appropriate.
- A weekend Meet shall be declared
a contest when pilots in either the Novice or Intermediate classes have
a scoring task.
- SCORING: Each class will be
scored as a separate task group using the 1000 Point system for each day
of a weekend Meet . These daily scores will be added for the weekend, and
the weekend League points will be awarded in EACH CLASS as follows:
For 'n' teams competing, then:
1st team gets 'n' points
2nd team gets 'n-1' points
3rd team gets 'n-2' points
4th team gets 'n-3' points etc.
League points are 'weighted' according to
class:
Pundit factor of 0.8
Intermediate factor of 1.0
Novice factor of 1.2
e.g. with 4 teams competing, winning
pundit earns 3.2 league points for his/her club. Winning novice earns 4.8.
This is to encourage the mentoring process by emphasizing the importance
of the novice performance. See appendix A for an example score sheet.
- Negative points cannot be
incurred.
- Any team failing to take a contest
launch scores zero.
- The weekend League Points are
added together to determine the Team scores for each Meet, and for the season.
- In the event of a draw at the
end of the season, the winner will be the team with the greater cumulative
points on the daily 1000 point system.
- Any No-Contest weekend (or scoring
but disappointing weekend) may be re-run in all classes or in part if all
team captains and host site or club agree. If this happens it is recommended
that all scoring flights are counted towards the total season scores.
- All matters of flying safety
remain the prerogative of the host site or club standard operations. Team
Captains should ensure that the standard of competence of their pilots is
adequate, but the need for check-flights should be discussed with the host
club or site. It is recommended that novices have a bronze badge & cross
country camp training, and/or a silver badge as minimum experience requirements.
- The Contest Director in committee
with the Team Captains will act as Stewards, whose ruling on any matters
in dispute will be final.
- Non-competing gliders will be
encouraged to fly the competition tasks wherever local operating conditions
permit this. Competing gliders should have launch priority.
- Each competing pilot may be
asked to pay a nominal entry fee, which will go towards organizational expenses
such as postage and trophies. This needs to be reasonable, and determined
in advanced by the host team.
- The host team's Team Captain
is responsible for getting the scores out to all participating teams within
10 days.
- These rules may be modified
at any time by agreement between Team Captains.
- Start and finish gates will
be used. Suggested start height is 5000' AGL on the honor principle. Minimum
allowable finish altitude should be determined by the host club or site.
- Turnpoint photos are recommended.
All pilots should be prepared to take pictures at each event. If no pictures
are required, turnpoints are rounded on the honor system. Use FAI badge
or contest methods of rounding a turnpoint, to be determined by the contest
director. The spirit of the league is such that cheating is not anticipated
to be a problem.
- Every contestant is responsible
for his/her own safety.
- Every contestant shall provide
proof of insurance.
- Tasks will be set appropriately
for each class in the meet. Wherever possible, intermediate and pundit classes
should be given the same task.
Prizes
In the mold of the UK league, we provided
perpetual awards for the winning teams in two classes; first of all, the
overall team champions for the season, and the team with the highest total
of novice league points. These were keenly contested and produced worthy winners
in both classes.
Results
The first year of the inter-club league
in the PASCO area (the PASCO league) was a rousing success. We had 6 teams
participate, 40 pilots flew in the league over the course of the season,
and many more flew the courses just for fun. These were not regular contest
oriented pilots, but club pilots eager to improve their cross country skills.
Several pilots improved over the season to the level where they have been
moved up a class for last season. The reason the league was successful was
everyone's combined talent, commitment and effort, not just the efforts of
a few. Indeed, what made the whole thing so special was everyone helping each
other have a good time. It's a formula that's hard to beat: 'Soaring for
the pilots, by the pilots'.
PASCO has made the League a
perpetual series, with perpetual trophies for the team and Novice winners
for the season. In this way, as pilots improve their skills and work their
way up the ranks, and new pilots are introduced, we should have a steady
stream of new talent to rotate through the various roles needed to keep the
movement going. When the first few seasons are over and all the bugs are
ironed out, the effort needed to maintain the regional inter club leagues
will reduce dramatically, and clubs will have a long term mentoring program
for their up and coming pilots to participate in. Because a program like
this has an important place in the soaring infrastructure of our local area,
PASCO will be increasing their support for the league incoming years.
The vision
Recently we found an interesting quote
which we'd like to share with you. It eloquently states our original vision
for the League concept in Northern California; it is by George Moffat and
is an entry from his old 'Soaring to Win' column in Soaring magazine; It
is entitled 'Needed: Weekend contest flying':
If contests are good,
fun and educational, why do only about 350 out of 10,000 US pilots compete
each year? The answer seems simple to me. Almost the only contests available
are Regionals and Nationals, and both have grown large, complex, time consuming
and expensive. Furthermore, the vast majority of contests are tightly packed
between June 1 and Labor Day. This leaves nine months with nothing much going
on.
With the cost of a competitive
glass ship, instrumented, trailered and ready to aviate in the $20-35,000
range (1978 figures), small wonder that contest flying as it exists today
is getting to look more and more like a well to do man's sport.
What we need is many more
informal contests at the club level. What keeps interest high in sailing
racing is not the America's cup or the Bermuda race, it's the club level,
Saturday and Sunday series held every weekend throughout the season. This
sort of thing is what we need to develop in soaring.
This was written in 1978, 16 years
ago. Now, we have declining membership and gliders are even more expensive.
Since that time, the Sports class has developed, but this still exists only
at the regional and National level.
The League concept
and other new soaring programs
Some of the other major programs emerging
in the Soaring movement at present are the World Class single class competition
glider, the new US kit sailplanes of significant performance and the youth
programs such as 'Young Eagles'. All these efforts are aimed at making soaring
more affordable, more accessible and more healthy. However, as previously
stated, without an improved foundation upon which to build these efforts,
their effectiveness will be limited by many of the organizational and demographic
issues already discussed. The league makes an ideal training ground for
future cross country and competition pilots by focusing on learning and
measurement rather than an obsessive desire to win. It provides a next step
for the new recruits brought into the movement through Cprograms such as
'Young Eagles', and provides a ladder for progress ideally suited to World,
Sports and FAI classes in a club environment. The league makes use of the
sports class handicapping in an assigned speed task format and uses it in
a weekend contest setting.
We suggest that this inter club
league format satisfies not only these considerations but also addresses
the inter-related issues of infra-structure, learning process, support environment
and member satisfaction, and is well enough proven to be adopted throughout
the country as an ideal way to foster interest and maintain a healthy movement.
Peter has have developed a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet to calculate scoring for a two day meet; If any one in
any of the regional organizations or clubs would like more information or
has questions about the program they can get in touch with us on the internet.
Appendix A: Sample
end of season score sheet to assist in interpreting scoring rules
| TEAM STANDINGS |
|
Cumulative |
|
Position |
League pts |
Chico |
Montague |
Truckee |
Airsailing |
C.Creek |
| DIABLO DEMONS |
1 |
52.2 |
10.2 |
10.8 |
10 |
13.4 |
7.8 |
| SILVERADO SLUGS |
2 |
48.4 |
12.4 |
7.8 |
9.4 |
12 |
6.8 |
| CHICO |
3 |
35.6 |
16 |
7.6 |
0 |
8.2 |
3.8 |
| BYRON BUNNIES |
4 |
27 |
3 |
3.8 |
6.6 |
6.8 |
6.8 |
| BILLS |
5 |
19.8 |
7.4 |
0 |
0 |
12.4 |
0 |
| NSA FLOCK |
6 |
14.2 |
7.2 |
0 |
4 |
3 |
0 |
| NOVICE STANDINGS |
|
Cumulative |
|
Position |
League pts |
daily pts |
| SILVERADO SLUGS |
1 |
19.2 |
4233 |
| DIABLO DEMONS |
2 |
19.2 |
4183 |
| CHICO |
3 |
14.4 |
| NSA FLOCK |
4 |
6 |
1192 |
| BYRON BUNNIES |
5 |
6 |
678 |
| BILLS |
6 |
2.4 |
|